Short Stories of Unraveled Lives

Shackles

"Just do it," a voice impatiently spouted behind me, my nerves flinching.

I was scared. I was young. There was a body wiggling like a worm on the ground in front of me and I just watched it in terror. Kill or be killed, right? It was either this or the man behind me was going to rip me a new one.

The small room was cold. Dreadful. A singular light dangling from the ceiling and a thin table, barely big enough to hold the open silver case. A masked man stood behind me barking orders at a pre-teen girl. It was only us three in the room.

I stood uneasily, my shaking hand holding the polished, metal object. I never thought I'd be holding one, but life is just unpredictable that way. As unpredictable as my fate if I didn't do what I was told.

"Well?" the man said.

There were no more questions. Any word out of my mouth then would have been met with a brutal beating, I was sure. It was so much easier to beat up a girl. But at least the squirming body was tied up, with a cloth covering his head. If I saw his face for even an instant, I wouldn't have been able to pull the trigger.

~

You couldn't have told me that it had been a month since that day. The day that blood stained the hands no amount of soap could clean. My life felt empty. My soul, crushed. I was going to hell and there was no recovering.

The doctors couldn't find a reason behind my unresponsiveness. I rarely spoke, and when I did, I mumbled. I had gotten home on time that fated night which gave my dad little reason to worry. However, it didn't take long for him to notice how much less I had been talking. And I wasn't going to talk to anyone about what happened. And I couldn't forgive myself for what I'd done.

Of course, I had to keep going to school at the time. And of course, they knew where I went. Those shitty pieces of human trash. Every week. Same job, same pickup location. I told my dad I had an afterschool club on Fridays because I didn't want to know what would happen to him if I said what was actually going on. They told me it wouldn't be pretty.

And so, for the next half a year, I did their dirty work for them. They would tell me to arrive somewhere after school, escort me to their car, blindfold me, and head to the same location every single time. There would always be a man or a woman on the floor or in an isolated chair in the middle of the small, cold room, just waiting for me. They would be tied up, cloth bags covering their face as they struggled. As they screamed. As I drowned out their dismay and picked up the gun. As I took the shot.

I didn't know why I was caught up in this at the time, I was too young to understand. I didn't know what happened in the adult world and I didn't want to. All I had to do was follow their instruction, go home after, and tell no one. None of us would get hurt that way. Or at least that's what I thought.

~

I couldn't tell how long it had been since this whole thing began. Months? Years? It was hard to keep track and I lost count a long while ago in this endless nightmare. Over time, I was able to fake being a regular girl again. It didn't help much, but I had at least gotten the doctors off my back.

My dad told me he was going to be working late shifts so he wasn't there when I got back from school. When I left in the mornings, he was always asleep. I never saw him anymore. The house was silent. I didn't know what I wanted but I got time to myself. It gave me time to take off the mask and suffer on my own.

I remember trying to go against those fuckers once. I was met with a gun pointed at my head. They knew that I might rebel against them at one point. They were ready for me to do make a move, to take a stand, to do anything, but I was just as stuck as ever. I was going to die if I fought back. My only family was going to die if I refused to do what they told. These victims were going to die anyways, whether I finished the deed, or they found another candidate. I was only saving some other poor girl from suffering the same fate if I made them get rid of me. There was no use. I had another day of club the next day.